


First

by ivebeenstumped



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-03
Updated: 2014-03-03
Packaged: 2018-01-14 10:25:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1262803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivebeenstumped/pseuds/ivebeenstumped
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin decides to start his life again at a London university when he is reminded of the past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First

A young man with dark brown hair lay another man into a wooden boat. The man with brown hair had tears running down his face as he lay the other man with light blonde hair into the boat. The other man did not seem to be moving at all. The man with the dark hair then waded out further into the water, pushing the boat in front of him. He stood motionless as he watched the boat float away from him. Tears still streaming down his face.  
Merlin awoke with a start, tangled in the sheets of his London apartment bed. Even though Merlin had lived hundreds of years since that day in Camelot where his life had changed forever, he still remembered every detail, everything he’d like to forget.   
Merlin rolled over to look at the time shown on his bedside table, 7:45 it showed, fifteen minutes until he would have to show up at University College London for his first day. He rolled out of bed and lumbered into the bathroom. Merlin had decided to start over again, and this time in modern day London, he thought what better way than to start university. Merlin had lived many lives since the battle, changing his appearance, age and story to suit his needs. This time he was 23 years old, his name was Micheal Headly, he was studying English and Psychology and didn’t have a great plan for after university. He had crafted this fake persona after several nights tossing and turning about his impulsive decision to join a university. Something he had firmly believed for a while was a bad idea. But he stuck to it.

Merlin took the tube to the university and enjoyed looking into all of the strangers faces, relishing the fact that no one knew who he was. Merlin enjoyed anonymity, he enjoyed passing by people unknown and being able to shrink into the corner. He had gotten used to being alone throughout the many years. As the tube pulled up to the station Merlin began feeling nervous, he didn’t know what to expect and he didn’t really know how to act around people of this age, he was after all several hundred years old. He walked out of the station and into the London air. He walked to the university briskly, his heavy backpack often slipping off his shoulders. When he got to the university, he felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu of being in a new place. He had felt this many times over the years, but this time it was more intense as the colossal structure he was standing at reminded him a bit of the Castle in Camelot. He ignored this feeling and walked through the giant entrance. 

He registered himself and began his first day at university. He was taken on a tour of the campus with a group of other new students, all of them looking around in awe at the building.  
“If you look to the left you will see the new café and garden area,” said the tour guide, “a perfect spot to-” but the tour guide was cut off, as a boy with familiar blonde hair and stark blue eyes ran up to the group.  
“Sorry I’m late,” the boy said, breathless from running.  
“Yes well, your name?” asked the tour guide.  
“Arthur Penn,” said the boy 

Arthur.

Was the only word running through Merlin’s head. He didn’t hear another word the tour guide was saying for the rest of the tour. He walked along blindly, his thoughts going into overdrive over that one word.

Arthur.

It was him. It must be him.   
Don’t be silly, his mind scolded him. Arthur died, you carried him into the water remember?  
But it must be him, he thought.   
His eyes followed the back of that light blonde head the whole day. Trying to work out if it was an reincarnation of Arthur, or just a coincidence. 

Later after the tour had ended Merlin decided to confront Arthur. Everyone in the tour went and sat in the garden area that the tour guide had mentioned earlier. Arthur sat with two other boys that he obviously knew before today and was laughing with them. Merlin was nervous to talk to Arthur with his friends around so he stayed where he was and watched them. Arthur stood up to go to the bin and Merlin followed him.   
“So, first day of uni eh?” said Merlin as he reached Arthur, “my name’s Mer- uh Michael.”  
“Arthur,” he said, not shaking Merlin’s hand, “did you follow me to the bin just to talk to me?”  
“No, no, of course not,” said Merlin shaking his head.  
“Good, keep it that way,” said Arthur dismissively. Yep, thought Merlin definitely Arthur.

This was the first reincarnation of Arthur that Merlin had met, but he would come to know many more in the hundreds more years that he lived.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This is for my school's Year 10 Personal Project. I am writing a collection of one-shots and compiling them in one book. Comments and suggestions are encouraged on either here or my tumblr ivebeenstumped :) xx


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